Has Humboldt Creamery always been rbST hormone free?
(rbST is an acronym for recombinant bovine somatotropin, aka bovine growth hormone.) Yes. That hormone is naturally produced in cows; Monsanto introduced the artificial hormone that you could substitute in about 1990. Right when they did that, we took a position as a co-op to ban the use of that amongst all co-op members. We’ve never wavered from that position. You are seeing more and more people [who] have really taken the position that they don’t want that in their dairy products. It is not really conducive for the dairy business in Humboldt Country. That is what we believe. Is there a replacement or alternative? First of all, it is naturally occurring in animals, and what you don’t want to do is have the additional hormones. The only reason for it is to boost production. It speeds up the metabolism, which basically shortens their life. I don’t want to say this, but they are almost like a machine, or a person on speed. That is what it does. It is not as common in our area. [None of]
